This is an herbaceous perennial vine climbing with tendrils. It has hairy lobed leave and 2 inch wide pink intricate flowers typical of Passiflora with feathery bracts beneath the flower. The vine is also noteworthy for the red fruits the size of small pullet eggs with the persistent bracts which hang on in fall as foliage dies down. An interesting vine for the sunny arbor or fence. We originally collected this as seed in San Antonio, Texas. Native to Central and South America and the West Indies but naturalized elsewhere in warm regions.
Passiflora caerulea is a vigorous evergreen vine climbing by tendrils. The leaves are deeply divided with narrow lobes. The flowers showy and intricate but ephemeral. Flowers three to four inches across and blue is typical for the species. This is a beautiful vine with striking flowers but can become rampant if not confined or restrained. It is native to Argentina.
Passiflora caerulea is a vigorous evergreen vine climbing by tendrils. The leaves are deeply divided with narrow lobes. The flowers showy and intricate but ephemeral. Flowers are three to four inches across and while blue is typical for the species 'Constance Elliott' is a white-flowered form. This is a beautiful vine with striking flowers but can become rampant if not confined or restrained. It is native to Argentina.
Quercus acutissima 'Gobbler' is a deciduous dense, broad, oval-rounded to broad-rounded tree with low-slung, wide-spreading branches. The cultivar Gobbler is the result of open-pollinated progeny that produce early and abundant acorns. One of the fastest growing oaks, especially in youth. Thrives in the heat of the South. Plant in well-drained, acidic soil but, also adaptable to other types of soil. This species is often confused with Chestnut because of leaf similarity. New Spring foliage is brilliant yellow to golden yellow. Often planted for wildlife especially wild turkeys which consume the acorns. It is also used as a shade or lawn tree. Quercus acutissima is native to eastern Asia.
This large growing fern is an uncommon native to swamps in the southern U.S. It has bold evergreen fronds. This rare fern is a great garden plant for rich moist soil in shady or semi-shady sites.
Dryopteris cycadina (D. atrata) is an easy-to-grow evergreen garden fern. The stiff leathery pinnate fronds make a good show in the shady or semi-shady woodland garden or along the shady side of a wall or building. .
This Asian fern has fronds with narrow strap-like pinnae. It is widely naturalized in warm regions where it often grows in cracks of old masonry walls and other spots with high calcium soils such as moist shady spots along foundations, etc.
Lady fern is one of the easiest and most graceful of the deciduous ferns, a soft, lacy fountain of finely divided, light green fronds that rise in a loose clump from spring into fall. Athyrium filix-femina brings a fresh, feathery texture to the shade garden and asks almost nothing in return.
A bold, handsome fern grown for foliage that holds through the year, Arachniodes simplicior 'Variegata' carries large, glossy, dark green fronds, each division marked down the center with a clean gold stripe. The variegated East Indian holly fern brings a strong, almost architectural texture to the shade garden, and the gold-striped fronds light up a dim corner.
This evergreen Old World fern has dark leathery leaflets suggesting holly leaves. It is an attractive coarse fern well-suited to moist shady spots in the garden or against walls. It is a favorite in many Deep South gardens.
Tall, upright, and luminous, the ghost fern brings a column of silvery light to the shade garden. Athyrium x 'Ghost' is a chance hybrid between the southern lady fern and the Japanese painted fern, found in Nancy Swell's Richmond, Virginia garden, taking the best of both parents: the upright, vase-shaped stature of the lady fern and the frosted, silver-green coloring of the painted fern, held on dark burgundy stems.
Few ferns light a shady bed like the Japanese painted fern. Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum' lays soft, arching, triangular fronds in cool silver and gray-green, washed with burgundy along the midribs and stems, a living watercolor for the woodland floor. Named the Perennial Plant of the Year in 2004, this is one of the most popular and most beautiful of all colored ferns.
A miniature of the lady fern, Athyrium filix-femina 'Minutissimum' keeps every bit of the species' lacy grace at a fraction of the size, building a dense little tuft of delicate, light green fronds just eight to ten inches high. The fine texture and small scale make this dwarf fern a jewel for the front of a shaded bed.
Carex conica 'Marginata' is a miniature evergreen sedge, a tidy, tufted, grass-like clump of narrow dark green blades, each finely edged in silver-white. At close range the effect is crisp and jewel-like, a low cushion of fine texture that holds color and form the year round in mild winters.
Carex morrowii is a tough, clump-forming Japanese sedge grown for deep, glossy, evergreen foliage, a low fountain of arching dark green blades that holds color and form through the year in mild winters. The plain green species is the quiet backbone behind the many variegated selections, and a fine foliage plant in its own right.
Carex morrowii 'Variegata' is the popular silver-edged form of the Japanese sedge, a tufted, grass-like clump of narrow blades to about a foot long, each margined crisply in silvery white. The variegation brightens a shaded planting where plain greens recede, and the evergreen foliage holds the effect through the year in mild winters.
Rusty Lyonia is a tall evergreen shrub often becoming tree-like with contorted branches. New leaves are rusty red. Flowers are small fragrant white bells. Plant in sunny or lightly shaded site with sandy acid soil and good drainage. This species is native to sandy pinelands and sand scrub from lower South Carolina through Florida.
Vigorous spreading, deciduous hybrid rose climber also known as 'Spanish Beauty'. It has large pink flowers that are red in bud. It blooms in the spring. Its foliage is dark green and relatively free of common rose problems. I can grow in full sun or on a north wall. Heavy petal flowers tend to nod which is advantage in roses usually seen from below. This hybrid by Pedro Dot of Spain was introduced in 1927.
A medium to large deciduous shrub closely related to the native buttonbush, Adina rubella wears smaller leaves and bears similar but daintier flowers: round, scented heads of pale pink and white, each bristling with styles into a small Sputnik, carried over a long season from early summer well into fall. The pincushion blooms draw bees and butterflies just as the buttonbushes do, and an open, arching habit gives the shrub a fine-textured grace.
